Malyy Vysotiskiy Island - EU-117

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Created on Monday, 18 June 2012 07:39

From RSGB IOTA;

Following the decision by the ARRL to delete Malyy Vysotskiy Island (MVI) from the current DXCC list as of 17 February 2012 the IOTA Committee has considered action to be taken with regard to the future of EU-117.

The presence of MVI in the IOTA list as a separate group was originally justified by its separate DXCC Entity status under Rule E.5.5, so the island's deletion now calls for action from IOTA. The programme does not maintain a Deleted Groups List to record contacts by participants with deleted IOTA groups in a form similar to the DXCC Deleted Entities List. Faced with the prospect of a straight deletion of EU-117 and incorporation of the island into the EU-133 list, the Committee formulated an alternative course of action involving the transfer of a section of the EU-133 ‘box’ to EU-117, so avoiding deletion.

It put the alternatives to an enlarged IOTA management group involving for the first time the 22 checkpoints. The consultation produced a clear majority in favour of splitting EU-133 to form two groups within the Gulf of Finland, North and South. The dividing line has been set at 60 degrees, 15 minutes north. The islands now constituting the two groups can be seen via the Search facility on this page. This change, which has an effective date backdated to 17 February 2012, means that past credits for MVI will continue to stand and new opportunities are created for contacting EU-117.

Record-holders need take no action regarding existing credits as they will not be deleted as a consequence of this change, nor in the case of EU-133 credits need they be transferred unless requested. The Committee believes this to be an imaginative solution in the best interests of the programme.

RAF Voyager over London

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Created on Saturday, 16 June 2012 12:21

The RAF’s largest ever aircraft, Voyager, has been flown by the RAF over HorseGuards Parade in London at the Queens Trooping The Colour Ceremony today.

Nearly 60 metres long from nose to tail and boasting a 60m wingspan, the new tanker will replace the VC-10 and tri-Star aircraft. Voyager is twice the size of a Lancaster bomber and can carry 291 troops for more than 6,000 miles.

14 of the models snapped up by the RAF and their deadline of the first to be in service by the end of 2011 was met.

The Voyager, a converted Airbus A330-200 airliner, can refuel another aircraft with 100,000 litres of fuel - more than that contained by two large petrol tankers. While a pump at a garage can deliver fuel at 40 litres per minute, the Voyager can refuel at a rate of 5,000 litres per minute, according to the defence ministry.

''How do I request a Qsl Card?''

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Created on Saturday, 16 June 2012 11:27

A few recent arrivals in the way of Qsl requests have made me wonder, 'do we really know how to make a Qsl card request?'. You may be a newcomer to the hobby who finds the whole process of requesting Qsl Cards very daunting indeed.

Well, in an attempt to help both older and newer people in the hobby, I have compiled a page on my website which I hope will attempt to answer most of the common questions.

Please take a look and if you feel it is of benefit then feel free to comment. So many times people fall foul of this proceedure so I hope this helps, at least a little!

Click here to read the article.

The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

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Created on Saturday, 16 June 2012 09:51

In 1716 English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, "This is but a little Patch, but it shews itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent." Of course, now it is modestly recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky.

Telescopic views reveal the spectacular cluster's hundreds of thousands of stars. At a distance of 25,000 light-years, the cluster stars crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter, but approaching the cluster core upwards of 100 stars could be contained in a cube just 3 light-years on a side.

For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is over 4 light-years away. Along with the cluster's dense core, the outer reaches of this one are highlighted in this sharp color image. The cluster's evolved red and blue giant stars show up in yellowish and blue tints.

JY9ET Cards mailed

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Created on Friday, 15 June 2012 09:12

JY9ET Qsl Cards arrived yesterday and the first batch hits the mail today.

I apologise for the longer than usual delay but it took a little longer to prepare the cards due to work commitments by Paolo in Jordan. If you need a Qsl card for JY9ET (or anyone else) click here.

Also, select this link if you are new to the hobby and need general Qsl advice.

Daito Islands - AS-047

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Created on Thursday, 14 June 2012 12:04

JE1SCF/6 & JG4IQC/6 will be active from the Daito Islands IOTA AS-047 between June 27 to July 2, 2012.

They will be using an HB9CV for 20/15/10m and long-wire for 40m + WARC bands. Mainly active on 20/17/15m CW.

Daitō Islands (大東諸島 Daitō Shotō or 大東島地方 Daitō-jima Chihō) are three islands that lie about 217 miles (349 km) east of Okinawa. Although these islands have long been known in Okinawa as Ufuagari (the Great East), all of the islands were uninhabited until the Meiji period, when people from other parts of Japan arrived.

HK0NA Qsl card received

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Created on Thursday, 14 June 2012 11:51

Long awaited HK0NA Card arrived today. Fast work by the Qsl Managers and pleased to confirm all the band and mode slots i worked...phew! Qsl was requested by their OQRS system, very fast and efficient way to obtain your cards nowadays and recommended.

If you need cards from me for any station I manage, check out my OQRS which caters for both Bureau and Direct cards. Check out the link here...... M0OXO OQRS

Io : Moon Over Jupiter

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Created on Tuesday, 12 June 2012 14:45

How big is Jupiter's moon Io?

The most volcanic body in the Solar System, Io (usually pronounced "EYE-oh") is 3,600 kilometers in diameter, about the size of planet Earth's single large natural satellite. Gliding past Jupiter at the turn of the millennium, the Cassini spacecraft captured this awe inspiring view of active Io with the largest gas giant as a backdrop, offering a stunning demonstration of the ruling planet's relative size. Although in the above picture Io appears to be located just in front of the swirling Jovian clouds, Io hurtles around its orbit once every 42 hours at a distance of 420,000 kilometers or so from the center of Jupiter. That puts Io nearly 350,000 kilometers above Jupiter's cloud tops, roughly equivalent to the distance between Earth and Moon.

The Cassini spacecraft itself was about 10 million kilometers from Jupiter when recording the image data.

Seribu Islands IOTA OC-177

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Created on Tuesday, 12 June 2012 14:33

A team of 30 operators will be operating from Kaliage Besar
 Island, Seribu Islands (IOTA OC-177) between July 6-9th, 2012 with the call YE0M.

Activity will be
 from 160 to 2m on CW, SSB and RTTY.

Mars Rover - New landing site

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Created on Tuesday, 12 June 2012 06:06

NASA has narrowed the target for its most advanced Mars rover, Curiosity, which will land on the Red Planet in August.

The car-sized rover will touch down closer to its ultimate destination for science operations, but also closer to the foot of a mountain slope that poses a landing hazard. It was possible to adjust landing plans because of increased confidence in precision landing technology aboard the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, which is carrying the Curiosity rover. That spacecraft can aim closer without hitting Mount Sharp at the center of Gale crater. Rock layers located in the mountain are the prime location for research with the rover.

Curiosity is scheduled to land at approximately 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (1:31 a.m. EDT, Aug. 6). Following checkout operations, Curiosity will begin a two-year study of whether the landing vicinity ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life.

DX Code Of Conduct

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Created on Monday, 11 June 2012 14:59

Anyone receiving Direct Qsl cards from MØOXO.Com in the last few months will have found not only their requested Qsl card in the envelope, but also this flyer promoting the DX Code of Conduct.

I make no apologies for this and it is something that will be repeated for a long time to come. We need to get the message across to some of our friends that the bad behaviour on Bands that causes stress and dis-harmony to other operators just cannot be tolerated. We are aiming to make the hobby more enjoyable and causing qrm, keying up and other countless forms of noise over a Qso is really not good enough.

I have 10,000 of these flyers now printed!

'Q' - Queen event closes in UK

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Created on Monday, 11 June 2012 12:32

The Queen Diamond Jubilee Special 'Q' Callsigns event in the UK ended at Midnight last night.

The Bands saw lots of activity over the last month when UK Stations had the opportunity to use the letter 'Q' in their prefix to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee. Awards for working 100 of these special stations are available and the event seemed very popular with good pile-ups and qso numbers despite the poor band conditions. Well done to those who took part and thanks to the chasers, a very memorable event for sure.

See you for the Olympic ('O') event in a few weeks time!

9M0L - Spratly Qsl Card preview

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Created on Monday, 11 June 2012 12:23

The 9M0L team from the recent Spratly Dxpedition have now issued the preview of their Qsl Card.

Kwajalein Atoll - IOTA OC-028

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Created on Monday, 11 June 2012 12:01

Steve, G3ZVW (also ZD8N), is is actually operating as V73/AF6SU from the V73AX club station on Kwajalein Atoll (WW Loc. RJ38UR), Ralik Chain (IOTA OC-028), Marshall Islands.

How much water on Earth?

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Created on Thursday, 07 June 2012 09:11

How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually.

Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius. The above illustration shows what would happen if all of the water on or near the surface of the Earth were bunched up into a ball. The radius of this ball would be only about 700 kilometers, less than half the radius of the Earth's Moon, but slightly larger than Saturn's moon Rhea which, like many moons in our outer Solar System, is mostly water ice.

How even this much water came to be on the Earth and whether any significant amount is trapped far beneath Earth's surface remain topics of research.

GB60HRH - Sunday 3rd June

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Created on Monday, 28 May 2012 19:11

On Sunday 3rd June 2012, A team from Wakefield and District Radio Society will operate GB60HRH to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II.

Queen Diamond Jubilee Award (Qso Party)

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Created on Friday, 25 May 2012 06:07

With two weeks left of the Special Event Station for HM Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee 'MQ0OXO' & 'GQ4RCG' have both reached the 2500 qso's mark.

The event seems very popular and maybe this is due to the fact that many are only just hearing about the special award that is available from the RSGB for the ''Diamond Jubilee Qso Party''?

The object is to work as many special United Kingdom 'Q' Callsign (2Q, GQ & MQ) stations as possible.

Full details of the Award and its rules can be found further down this Blog entry by clicking 'read more'.

Photo shown is Qsl Card NOT the Award.

Read more: Queen Diamond Jubilee Award (Qso Party)

World’s tallest tower opening

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Created on Wednesday, 23 May 2012 06:35

The Tokyo Skytree, twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower, and its surrounding retail and office complex opened on Tuesday with thousands lining up in the rain for a first look at the 143 billion yen ($1.8 billion) development.

Tokyo Skytree with it's 634m tower took four years to build and surpassed the 600-metre Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China, as the world’s tallest, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Dubai’s Burj Khalifa is the tallest building at 828 meters.

A tower is a structure where less than half the height is occupied by usable floor space, according to the council. The tower, which cost 65 billion yen on its own, has two observation decks, one at 350 metres and another at 450 metres. A trip to the lower deck will cost 2,000 yen.

Logbook Of The World Statistics

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Created on Monday, 21 May 2012 08:57

Here are my latest Qso details taken this morning from LOTW.

Annular Solar Eclipse

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Created on Saturday, 19 May 2012 07:29

Tomorrow (20th May) the Moon's shadow will race across planet Earth. Observers within the 240-300 kilometer wide shadow track will be able to witness an annular solar eclipse as the Moon's apparent size is presently too small to completely cover the Sun.

Heading east over a period of 3.5 hours, the shadow path will begin in southern China, cross the northern Pacific, and reach well into North America, crossing the US west coast in southern Oregon and northern California. Along the route, Tokyo residents will be just 10 kilometers north of the path's center line. Of course a partial eclipse will be visible from a much larger area within North America, the Pacific, and eastern Asia.

This safely filtered telescopic picture was taken during the annular eclipse of January 15, 2010 from the city of Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India.

Heard Island in 2014

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Created on Saturday, 19 May 2012 07:20

After 5 months of planning, Cordell Expeditions is pleased to announce a DXpedition to Heard Island, Territory of Australia, in early 2014.

Initial team members, collaborating organizations, and other resources will be announced in the near future. They will be active on all bands and all modes, implement a variety of innovative real-time communications technologies, and field a variety of scientific projects that are designed to observe and document some of the unique resources on this extraordinary island. 

The website for the 2014 DXpedition is www.cordell.org/HD.